Three years after Lucinda's confrontation with the mastermind behind the infection, she is forced to risk everything to save Lucella once and for all.
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Fifteen-year-old Lucinda Emerson was well aware of the fact that she didn't take TIO down...
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The first thing I was met with on the other side was a bright light.
Following that were the sounds of crickets and birds. I groaned and rubbed my eye, and when my vision returned to normal, I realized that I was in a forest with tall trees that only allowed for small amounts of sunlight to slip through the cracks on the leaves. When I turned around, I noticed that the portal I arrived with was gone. I furrowed my eyebrows and turned back. As far as I knew, I was all on my own here.
"Terence... I know not if this is a good imagining."
Or not.
I rushed to the sound of the voice and pressed my back against a nearby tree, taking out my rifle and holding it in place against my body. I took a look behind me and noticed a boy and a girl walking towards an empty spot in the middle of the forest. The boy, who I could easily tell was Huxley, carried a book that had a black and purple cover in his hand with a smile. The girl, who I shared many physical similarities with, seemed hesitant while following her supposed friend, carrying a small black bag. Both were wearing clothes that seemed very... old.
Huxley chuckled and turned to face the girl. "Oh, join on, Lucy," he playfully whined. "This'll solve all our problems! I warrant!" The pair stopped walking, and Huxley opened the book and flipped to a page in the middle. Then, he closed it and shoved it into Lucy's hands. "Hither, bear this!" He said as his friend yelped. Then, Huxley picked up a stick from the ground and began to draw a diamond in the ground. Something about it seemed familiar.
Once he was done, he ripped the bag from Lucy, who was reading the book given to her. "Terence, I... I do not see how this is going to solve aught," she tried to reason. Huxley opened the bag and took out five candles before turning back to look at Lucy. "Of what quantity times doth I hast to say to thou?" He asked. "If this works, thou shall rise of thy arranged marriage, and I shall be able to discover mine father that I be just as capable as mine brothers!"
Huxley placed the five candles on the edges of the diamond before he took out what looked to be a box of matches. As he one out and lit it up against the side of the box, I felt my heart stop. My eye widened and I let out a gasp when it hit me. I managed to remember why that symbol seemed so familiar. It was the same one I saw back in the forest three years ago. Back then, I did the same thing Huxley was doing out of curiosity.
That symbol brought nothing but pain upon me.
And he was doing the same thing to the rest of the world.
Huxley went around the diamond, lighting up all the candles on the edges. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Lucy taking a few steps back in fear of what her friend was doing. If I wasn't hiding behind the tree, I would've done the same thing. As soon as Huxley lit up the fifth and final candle, the lines on the ground instantly began to glow purple. At the same time, a ball of fire that was the same color formed in the center of the diamond.
